In 1939, the war and expansionist policies opened up new op-portunities not just for collecting but for career advancement.Arthur Haberlandt, for example, worked as an' expert' in theEinsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg( ERR) task force, where hewas responsible for assessing and valuing objects stolen frommuseums. At the same time, strengthened by his position inthe ERR, he sought to acquire objects he considered attractivefor his own museum collections in Vienna. Even after war hadended, the museum was still able to obtain objects previouslyin Jewish ownership.

7| Objects: In Motion

Many of the objects in museum collections are hidden frompublic view. The majority of the objects at the Austrian Mu-seum of Folk Life and Folk Art are stored in depots and manyhave never been on display. Others have been taken out ofpublic exhibitions and stored, or even removed from thecollections. This might happen for a number of reasons butoften it is a new political system with new objectives thathas caused or causes those working at the museum to' move'objects in this way.

Even when objects are no longer accessible to visitors or areno longer available in the collections, the archive material thattells of their former status as museum objects and of how theywere dealt with still exists. This provides evidence of museumpractices and again points to the forms of relationships andconnections that were significant at different points in time.